People in Chicago

November 15, 2006

Ok, so by now you’ve been overwhelmed with 50 different stories about 50 different movie premiers, and trust me I feel your pain. However, I’m contractually obligated bring you one more, so sit back and relax ’cause here comes movie premiere story #51.

I promise, I’ll keep it brief.

We were invited to Chicago to help kick off the winter with a special showing of MDP’s People and Follow Me Around. For those of you that don’t know, Chris Bachman, Barto and all the fine folks at Chicago’s landmark Shred Shop have been doing these pre season parties for years and they always pack a big punch. For example, the last one I went too ended in an impromptu foam party and had two kids almost get their thumbs severed while fighting over a snowboard. Sounds pretty sweet, huh? So I made the call to skip “the first day of school, a.k.a. Mammoth’s opening, and headed to the airport.

Shaun McKay and I met up with Ryan Thompson at O’Hare International Airport, and after destroying Oprah’s favorite deep-dish pie we were on our way.

We met up at the theater with 686′s Midwest Rep, Scott Ladwig, and were quickly treated to the ever so popular, all you can drink vodka-Red Bull bar. The place was fairly crowded, despite the torrential downpour and the ten inches of new snow just north of us.

The movies played, autographs were signed, snapshots were taken, squats were squatted, drinks were drank, Ditka jokes were told, donkey punches were punched, shaka’s were thrown, shoes were talked into, cameras were lost, product was tossed … you know, all the usual things you’ve come to expect at a snowboard movie premiere.

Fast-forward to the after party, which much to RT’s disappointment had no severed thumbs and no foam. Now usually this is the point in the evening when all the dirt goes down right? This is where the story could have actually got interesting. Maybe there’d be an all-nighter and a missed flight? Maybe some hoes would stalk us and fall out of a tree? Maybe there’d be a fight and someone would get arrested? Maybe something crazy would happen to make this story interesting? Well sorry to disappoint you kids, but we kept it mellow and put the cap back on our “party season and got the F out of Chi Town while we could still see straight.

Thanks Chris, Barto and everyone at The Shred Shop. See you next fall.